Heather Callaghan, Contributor
Waking Times

To be sure, of all the recent human trials to come out showing the promises of psilocybin – the hallucinogenic compound found in magic mushrooms – it’s only the scientists who are surprised by the stunning brain changes from psychedelics. (Then again, behold the results for yourself.)

That’s what happened when Robin Carhart-Harris of Imperial College London and his colleagues announced the good news today with their newly published study in Scientific Reports. They ran 19 depressed and treatment-resistant volunteers through a magic mushroom trial to look at the results in their brains. Previously, Carhart-Harris and his team ran 12 people through a similar trial and five months later, 5 of them were still free of depression. That report detailed the spiritual benefits of psilocybin for depression.

Christina Sarich, Staff Writer
Waking Times

Researchers from Boston University have figured out two areas of the brain which must be activated to ‘turbo charge” cognitive functioning.

Two brain regions – the medial frontal and lateral prefrontal cortices – control most executive function. It was found that by synchronizing these areas of our grey matter, participants in a study experienced better, faster brain functioning. De-synchronizing these areas resulted in the opposite – a slower brain.  However, if there more to the story of our brain’s left or right brain dominance?

Using high-definition transcranial alternating current stimulation (HD-tACS) to synchronize oscillations between the medial frontal and lateral prefrontal cortices, resulted in faster neurotransmitter firing.

The synchronization of these two areas of the brain also resulted in better communication abilities and more control over the participants’ emotional reactions.

Phillip J. Watt, Contributor
Waking Times

Residents of earth are becoming more conscious in two primary areas.

The first relates to the way in which our planetary social system has been hijacked into a scam to predominately benefit a select few at the expense of the rest of us, as well as our natural systems. The second concerns our intimate connection to all of reality, regardless if viewed through an ecological, scientific or metaphysical lens.

These shifts in consciousness are not based on new insights. In our so-called ‘civilised’ history there have always been royal families, aristocrats and the upper echelons of social and corporate structures who have aimed to control local, regional and international populations through whatever means possible, leading to many revolutions. Moreover, the dominant philosophy throughout humanity’s evolution is arguably animistic in nature, and consciousness played an integral role for not just ancient people’s, but more modern minds as well.

Alex Pietrowski, Staff Writer
Waking Times

Fluoridating municipal water supplies is akin to medicating someone without their consent, and is an abuse of human rights. The practice of fluoridation is justified as a necessary public health intervention to combat tooth decay, even though the known dangers of fluoridation far exceed the potential benefit.

The notion that drinking fluoridated water decreases IQ in children is backed up by a number of studies and testimony by people at the highest levels of public health. In 2012, a major Harvard study found that public water fluoridation poses a risk to the developing intelligence of children, essentially lowering the IQ of those in communities with public water fluoridation.

Alex Pietrowski, Staff Writer
Waking Times

One of the great myths of the American diet has just been shattered. It’s one that prompted an explosion in the market for processed foods which substituted chemical concoctions for natural fats in processed foods. And now, finally, the fat-free craze can be safely put to rest.

A study of 135,000 adults, conducted by Lancet, overturns decades of conventional wisdom and warns us that a low-fat diet may actually be killing us. In short, the findings suggest that this type of diet could raise the risk of early death by almost 25%, a number significant enough to challenge current trends in dietary wisdom.

“The study, which has been published in The Lancet, found people with the highest 20 per cent intake of total fat – getting around a third of their calories from fate – had about 23 per cent reduced risk of death compared to those with the lowest 20 per cent of fat intake.

Consuming more fat, whether that was saturated, polyunsaturated or monounsaturated were all associated with lower mortality.